A big painting mess in my studio

I'm getting ready to prep a second book for my AB class I'm teaching, so thought I would try a different material for my inside end paper. You can see I've already removed many (at least 1/3) pages from this book, the ones the paints are now sitting on. Also on the desk is a used tyvek USPS envelope, my book, as well as paint and glimmer mist.


Paint, sprays, and my new shower curtain liner covering my table don't go all that well together, and I didn't want to mess it up the first week after I changed it. If you were here yesterday, you saw I had some red rosin paper on my table, along with some electric scissors. Red rosin paper is a product I haven't used in a long, long time. Since I plan to use only items I've already purchased, I thought this paper was perfect. I've used it to make backgrounds, and love getting it all messy with leftover paint before I cut and use it in my art. One of its attributes is it is made from recycled fibers that are set in alum to resist bleeding. That means this paper takes moisture (i.e. paint) well and won't bleed through to the plastic shower liner.

A few years ago, I got the electric scissors as a Christmas present. At the time, I wasn't especially in love or thrilled with the gift. But I soon found this was the perfect way to quickly cut this paper without killing my hands. It only takes a few seconds to zip through this stuff with the scissors. You can get red rosin paper in the roofing section of your local hardware/big box home improvement store. I've used this paper a lot and I still have about half a roll.


To prepare the tyvek, I cut an old USPS envelope at the edges and the seams. I was shocked when I saw what the PO had done with their envelopes. They want to make sure we don't use them for art anymore! I was hoping paint would cover the writing, but . . .


that did not seem to be the case. So I grabbed some gesso and continued trying to cover the words. As for the glimmer mist, it was too close to the paint color, so I won't be using it anymore.


Originally, I was going to make grass and sky, then didn't like what I was getting, so started mixing the two colors a bit. Even before they dried, I hated the look, so I grabbed


some gold glaze I got free at my local Household Hazardous Waste Swap and Shop a few months ago. It took forever to get the lid open, since the person who owned it before me, didn't bother cleaning the lid properly before putting it back on the container. In fact, contrary to the shine from the room lighting caught by the camera, much of the paint was already dry by the time I got the gold glaze on the tyvek.


I was looking for some cling wrap and all I could find was my expensive Press and Seal, which I will not use for this project. I wasn't sure it would work, and I didn't want to waste the expensive stuff. So, I quickly grabbed two plastic grocery bags, cut the handles and bottoms, then ripped them up one side. I wanted them larger than the backgrounds. Next, I crumpled the bags and laid them onto the wet paint/glaze.

Here's a tip: If you haven't crumpled the bags enough, you can still twist and scrunch them until the glaze begins to set. I even crumpled and pressed the bags with my hands to assure good coverage.

Set aside to dry. Do not remove until all the glaze has dried, or the glaze/paint will lift away from the bags, along with bits of the paper or tyvek. If you want to see a tutorial on making cling wrap and paint backgrounds, here is one I made in 2009.

As an aside, note the gold ring sitting on the front bag in the photo. That was the dried glaze I removed from the lid of the gold glaze before I returned it to the container. I was a bit shocked by all that dried glaze, but I knew something was wrong when I spent so much time getting the container open.

As for the tyvek mess I made? You will have to wait until I reveal the finished piece in my AB lesson on prepping your inside end pages which is a few weeks away (Lesson 3).

Thanks for your visit today. I hope that clears up what red rosin paper is, but I'm sure some of you will follow the link to read about it for yourselves. And, since I was asked about the electric scissors, they are NOT good for detailed work, just for cutting long stretches of paper, like wrapping paper or the rosin paper. They do not work well with fabric either, so they are not good for much, except as a specialty gift.